The Phari Factor

Marda and Tyhry meet the Phari

 In my previous blog post, I found ways to get the WOMBO Dream cloud-based CLIP-guided image generating software to make illustrations in which the human figures were more active. The image to the right shows the kind of "just standing around" illustration that Mr. Wombo usually generates. Here in this blog post, I'm going to explore ways to make more dynamic book and magazine cover illustrations with the help of Mr. Wombo.

Figure 1. Meet the Phari

The image to the left shows the type of book cover that is easy to generate with the WOMBO Dream image generating software. I want a more interesting cover with the human and alien figures doing something exciting rather than have them just standing there.

another "standing around" cover

The image shown to the right is another example of the type of "stiff as a board" images that Mr. Wombo seems to create by default. This image (to the right) was transformed by Mr. Wombo into Figure 1.

In the image to the right, Marda's right thigh was originally bare skin, but I was able to have Mr. Wombo inpaint that leg and cover it with green cloth. I was rather disappointed that Mr. Wombo did not have the sense to make that leg look like the other leg.

Figure 2. heart surgery

On earlier occasions, I've had Mr. Wombo create illustration for Tyhry and Marda working in a laboratory setting. 1) see the nanoscopy lab here and 2) the nanite programming images here and 3) the nanite development lab images and 4) the alien research laboratory images here and here). 

Mr. Wombo can become difficult to work with when multiple human figures are put into a confined space and they are doing things with their hands. I want to have the three characters in Figure 1 be in an illustration that depicts them in the middle of an experiment with nanotechnology. Figure 2 provides an example of how Mr. Wombo can do unexpected things with human Figures, particularly their hands. Here, one of the women seems to have magically inserted her hand into the chest of the other woman (Figure 2, bottom center).

Figure 3.  Mr. Wombo does
electroencephalography.

 The Synapex Experiments. Expecting that there were some images in its training set for electroencephalography, I asked Mr. Wombo to generate an image depicting Tyhry and Marda engaged in an electroencephalography experiment. For my story "The Cythyrya Investigation", I need to illustrate a scene where an alien is helping Tyhry and Marda use nanites to establish a synapex linkage.

The first electroencephalography image generated by Mr. Wombo is shown in Figure 3. This image was totally unacceptable (how do you like those hands in the lower right part of the image?), so I set about the task of trying to get Mr. Wombo to generate a useful image.

Marda in the research lab.

The third image generated by Mr. Wombo is shown to the left. I truly dislike Mr. Wombo's tendency to include tattoos in every image. My goal is a book cover illustration that clearly shows Tyhry, Marda and an alien.

Figure 4. Flora's experiment.

However, at this stage, I was only asking for an image with Tyhry and Marda. I was pleased when the "Flora v2" style produced Figure 4. Without even being asked, Flora put a non-human creature into the image and showed all three characters connected by "wires".

Figure 5. 20th century

I was able to get a reasonable image for Tyhry and Marda doing an experiment aimed at physically linking their nervous systems (Figure 5). My next task was to transform Mr. Wombo's image from a scene with 20th century technology to a futuristic scene with nanotechnology and an alien.

Figure 6. in Alastor Cluster

With the help of Mr. Wombo and Photoshop, I first altered the background so as to insert futuristic lab equipment and a nanite network pattern that I previously devised. Next, I inserted a humanoid alien into the center of the scene. The resulting image is shown in Figure 6. This new image seems more suited for a future setting in Alastor Cluster, although most of the background laboratory scene is not visible behind Tyhry, Marda and the alien. The alien turned out green, although I did start out planning on a blue alien. This could easily be corrected with Photoshop, but the nanites being used by Tyhry and Marda turned out blue, so the green alien does provide better contrast.

The Phari Nanites (full size)

The resulting book cover is shown to the left. I'd still like to add a cloud of nanites to this scene, but already it is better than the three heads sculpture display in Figure 1.

Figure 7. Tyhry the redshirt.

I'm not entirely opposed to having Tyhry and Marda dressed in white, but usually Mr. Wombo does not get stuck on just one color.  

The folks who are developing the WOMBO Dream cloud-based Stable Diffusion image generating software do keep making changes. I was able to use their inpainting feature to change Tyhry's shirt from white to red (see Figure 7). 

Figure 8. Pi Day, the movie

 Pi Day. Tyhry and Marda are two science nerds. When I asked Mr. Wombo to put them on a science fiction movie poster, I got Figure 8. I asked that the movie poster show a "futuristic physics laboratory", but Mr. Wombo ignored that request.

the search for telepathic aliens

I made a fresh start on my project that is aimed at making a movie poster depicting an attempt by Tyhry and Marda to make telepathic contact with an alien from Alastor Cluster. As shown in the image to the right, upon Arriving in Alaster Cluster, Tyhry and Marda first use a telepathy amplifier to search for telepathic aliens.

Figure 9. The movie poster.

After the telepathic aliens are contacted, Tyhry and Marda are able to get help from the aliens during their search for medical nanites (see Figure 9).

Mr. Wombo has some very stubborn and annoying tendencies. One of these is seen in the set of images at the bottom of this blog post: a compulsion to put battle helmets on the heads of aliens.

Figure 10. Bulio style synapex.

I returned to Figure 4 and had Mr. Wombo apply the "Buliojourney v2" style. I asked for a scene depicting Tyhry and Marda with a member of a telepathic alien species and a complex network of wires linking between their heads. As shown in Figure 10, Mr. Wombo could not resist providing a battle helmet for the alien. I asked the Bing chatbot for information about the "Buliojourney v2" style and was told: "Buliojourney v2 is a style of image generation that is an option available on Dream by WOMBO. Buliojourney v2 can produce images that have a fantasy or cyberpunk vibe."

VFX style synapex linkage

I also tried the "VFX v2" style (see the image to the left). According to the Bing chatbot, the "VFX v2" style can generate "fantastical images that depict something that is imaginary or unrealistic, such as a mythical creature, a magical scene, a futuristic setting or a surreal composition."

Flora style synapex connections.

 In Search of a Usable Alien. According to the Bing chatbot, the "Flora v2" style can generate: "realistic or artistic images of flowers and plants." I looped Figure 4 back into the "Flora v2" style and got the image shown to the right. I'm not interested in Flora's obsession with flowers, so I used that image as a new reference and sent it back to VFX and Buliojourney.

VFX green alien

Bulio does a green alien

The resulting images had some problems. Mr. Wombo wanted to produce robot-like aliens and did not want to follow the text prompt that specified black hair for Marda (see the VFX-generated image to the left). 

In fact, using the Buliojourney style, in order to get black hair for Marda, I had to make a composite image using both Figure 10 and a new image with the Buliojourney-generated green alien (see the image to the right). 

I wish I knew how to control the number of synapex connections drawn by Mr. Wombo.

Michelle Yeoh from two universes

 Another Poster. Mr. Wombo is very good at drawing complex multiverse network maps. Given Mr. Wombo's issues with hands, I simply had to let him make a poster with hot dog fingers (see the image to the left).

dozens of hot dog fingers?

Sadly, Mr. Wombo does not get the whole hot dog fingers concept. I asked for: "Michelle Yeoh with dozens of hot dog fingers, very large fingers that look like hot dogs, hands raised for combat, many hot dog fingers protrude from elongated hands".

For the final version of my "Every Hot Dog" movie poster, I used: "movie poster with Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh, very large hot dogs, complex multiverse network map in background" and some Photoshop compositing.

Every Hot Dog poster

The resulting image is shown to the left. Mr. Wombo kept trying to change the multiverse map into a city street scene. Mr. Wombo made plenty of fingers without that even being in the text prompt.

I asked the Bing chatbot: "How does a viewer of "Everything Everywhere All At Once" know that Evelyn Quan Wang did not simply imagine being able to travel to alternate universes?"

The Bing chatbot replied, "A viewer of "Everything Everywhere All At Once" can be convinced that Evelyn Quan Wang did not simply imagine being able to travel to alternate universes because: 1) She is not the only one who can access the multiverse. There are other characters who have similar abilities. 2) She encounters physical evidence of her travels, such as objects or injuries that she brings back from other realities. 3) She has a clear motivation and goal for her journey."

alternate universe by Mr. Wombo

However, if travel between universes is possible, then why is Evelyn the first Earthling to learn about it? If there is a "Fermi paradox for the multiverse" then we must ask: which is more likely: 1) Evelyn imagined travel to alternate universes or 2) Evelyn traveled to alternate universes, but now she will simply resume her conventional existence. Yawn. For me, I don't believe that travel between universes would happen as depicted in "Everything Everywhere All At Once". I feel that the writers of the movie screenplay did not even try to write a science fictions story and it is absurd to say that, "a science fiction movie won the best picture award".

map of the multiverse

When I asked Mr. Wombo to make a map of the multiverse, I was surprised that one of the resulting images included a map of Earth (see the image to the left). I love maps, so I became curious about the extent to which Mr. Wombo can generate useful maps.

I asked Mr. Wombo for a: "high resolution map of the Western Hemisphere, for an alternate universe in which both North America and South America are shaped like the continental United States of America, show every state twice".

North and South America

I used the reference image shown to the right. 

Mr. Wombo's world.

The most interesting result generated by Mr. Wombo is shown to the left. I love the way that Mr. Wombo converted the United States of North America into a new version of the Western Hemisphere with Canadian Provinces and a miniature version of South America, while adding on (further south) an alternate version of the United States.

Figure 11. tropical complexity

Another interesting version is shown to the right (Figure 11). Mr. Wombo seemed to be captivated by the fact that states in the eastern United States tend to be smaller that states in the west. In this twisted Western Hemisphere, the small states all end up in the topics.

Last month I was exploring way to prevent Mr. Wombo from fusing the body parts of two people who are close to each other in an AI-generated image. While looking at maps that were generated by Mr. Wombo (such as the one in Figure 11), I wondered if the image-generating software could be coaxed into replacing parts of a map with human figures. 

At first, I tried using this text prompt: "high resolution map of the Western Hemisphere, cover each state and territory with a photographic image of a human body part".

Mr. Wombo's planet.

Mr. Wombo could not follow these instructions and produced images such as the one to the left. I tried various other text prompts such as: "many women on a world map, a photographic mosaic, there is a woman at the position of each country on the map, use photographs of women", but none of them worked.

The Americas reference image.

I felt that Mr. Wombo needed a reference image as a starting point, so I provided the image shown to the right which originated as a candy box. To get this reference image, I had to cut out images of faces and pasted them into the candy box.

Figure 12. Mr. Wombo's universe.

Even given my "Americas reference image", Mr. Wombo struggled to complete this task. I'm not able to imaging how Mr. Wombo interpreted "high resolution map of the Western Hemisphere, cover each state and territory with a photographic image of a human body part" so as to create Figure 12.

the mosaic

I changed the background of my reference image from candy to solid blue, like the ocean on a map and then asked Mr. Wombo for: "a mosaic of many human faces that together make a map of the Western Hemisphere that fills the entire image" and got the image shown to the right. 

Tyhry and Marda is a crowd.

 Tyhry and Marda Composite. The image to the left shows the "western hemisphere map" decorated with images of Marda and Tyhry.

Alternate North America

I also got what might be an illustration for a story about Tyhry and Marda visiting a past Reality (image to the right). Previously, I imagined different political boundaries for North America in the Ekcolir Reality. Mr. Wombo seemed intent on creating a strange new set of nations for the Americas.

Fig. 12. hair nanite experiment

 Back to the Nanite Laboratory. The image to the left illustrates one of Tyhry's hair nanite experiments. Mr. Wombo made a set of filaments when I asked for a scanning electron microscopy image depicting chromosomes. Those "chromosomes" turned into the pink background of Figure 12.

nanite convention

Manny, Marda and Tyhry use the Reality Simulation System to visit the annual Alastor Cluster hair and clothing nanite convention (image to the right). When I try to get Mr. Wombo to use futuristic Sci Fi settings, he always reverts to scenes of conventional city streets or conventional auditoriums. Even when my text prompt began with "nanotechnology", Mr Wombo had a different plan. I tried using: "nanotechnology research project, sparkling clothing nanites", but Mr. Wombo kept taking the setting out of the research lab.

animated GIF

Some other versions of this nanotechnology convention setting are shown to the left. I like to imagine that the hair and clothing nanites can be constantly shifting from minute to minute, even as Tyhry and Marda are mingling with the other folks attending the convention.

Tyhry's nanite experiment

 Confession. Sometimes Mr. Wombo makes Tyhry and Marda and Manny look so cute that I stop complaining that in these AI-generated images they are depicted as "just standing there" and doing nothing.

The image to the right shows my minimal level of expectation for an illustration where Tyhry should be doing something with her nanites. Now I just need to figure out what Mr. Wombo thinks is going on in this scene. Mr. Wombo motto: It just has to look cool, it does not need to make sense".

blaster: don't leave home without it

Mr. Wombo finds it hard to resist putting a blaster into Tyhry's hand (see the image to the left). I added the pink/purple nanites above her left hand.

Another nanite experiment.

Here is one more version of the scene with Tyhry and her nanites (image to the right). I added in both the purple nanites on her left hand and the yellow nanites on her right hand. Mr. Wombo devised the glowing knee pads.

Mr. Wombo was continually tempted to put in a planet and show Tyhry walking in space wearing high heels, but I was trying for a nanotechnology lab setting.

Next: Crystal Dreams.

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